Heroic levels of smuggling into Vietnam

The smuggling of cigarettes from Cambodia into Vietnam is on the rise, according to a story in The Cambodia Daily quoting recent Vietnamese media reports.

Last week, VietnamNet, an online news site in Vietnam, quoted Pham Kien Nghiep, the secretary-general of the Vietnam Tobacco Association, as saying that the number of smugglers along the Cambodian-Vietnamese border had risen drastically this year.

“There are too many unemployed people, all too ready to transport illegal cigarettes, despite the risks,” Nghiep was quoted as saying.

According to a report by Oxford Economics and the International Tax and Investment Center released in September, 21.9 billion untaxed and otherwise illicit cigarettes were smuggled into Vietnam last year.

And the Vietnam Tobacco Association estimates that 90 percent, or 19.7 billion, of those cigarettes were made up of two brands: Hero and Jet.

Choeng Vann Thor, head of the General Department of Taxation’s branch office in Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon district said Hero cigarettes were not sold in Cambodia.

“As I know, Hero cigarettes are not sold in Cambodia, but exported to Vietnam,” he said.

However, the brand is widely available across Cambodia.

Meanwhile, Long Sreng, deputy director of the Interior Ministry’s anti-economic crime police department, said he was not aware of any cigarette smuggling between Cambodia and Vietnam. “I don’t know about this. I am not the director, but just the deputy director,” he was quoted as saying.